Subtropical Garden in Carmel Valley

White sapote (Casimiroa edulis) is an uncommon fruit in California.  I have not seen the fruit in general or oriental supermarkets.  The first time I saw white sapote was in a San Marcos nursery.  The nursery had a special event for drought resistant flowering plant.  My wife and I enjoyed the colorfully blooming butterfly bushes, penstemon and alstromeria and strolled around the nursery ground.  We noticed a big trees with bright green leaves and numerous green round fruit on the tree.  The fruit looked like green apple or guava, but the leaves definitely are different from apple or guava.  A worker nearly told us that it was call white sapote and offered a couple of soft fruit to us. The skin of the fruit was soft and thin, the meat a light yellow.  The texture of the fruit was very soft and creamy with slight sweetness.  I was hooked. The white sapote just planted I subsequently bought a 5-gallon white sapote (Vernon) in a nursery. ...

Brazilian Cherry (Grumichama, Eugenia  brasiliensis ) We San Dieagans can grow many many fruit trees thanks to the year -round mild climate, from tropical fruit such as mango, banana, subtropical fruit such as citrus, cherimoya to temperate fruit with low-chill requirement such as apple, peach, apricot.  However, it is very difficult, if not impossible to grow cherry in the coastal San Diego.  Luckily, there are many cherry-like fruit trees that can grow and produce here.  A few examples are Surinam cherry ( Eugenia uniflora ), Barbado cherry ( Malpighia emarginata)  , Capulin Cherry (Prunus salicifolia) and Brazilian cherry.  The all around champion of these cherry-like fruits in my opinion is the Brazilian cherry or Grumichama. The plants I have are evergreen bushes approximately 7 feet tall with shiny dark evergreen leave.  The new leaves are brightly red which add drama to the rather ornamental plant.  The plant typically blooms in the spr...

Citrus When I was designing the new garden, the first plants I thought of were citrus trees.  There were all evergreen bushes or trees.  Most of them had en leaves, fragrant flowers and/or beautiful edible fruits. There were endless citrus species/hybrids and variety, my head span when I thought of the potential collection I could have. Everyone could use a fresh lemon or lime.  The orange and mandarin were delicious , nutritious and juicy.  The flowers were heavenly fragrant.  Grapefruits were good for your health.  Pummelos were huge, sweet without the bitterness.  Kumquats had delicious peel and were great for making jams.  The leaves of Kaffir lime were an essential ingredient for the Thai cuisine.  There were also collector's items such as Buddha's hand and finger limes.   The citrus family was both ornamental and practical. There were so many choices of citrus I could grow.  I searched the internet to see if they would gro...

Alstromeria hybrids Alstromeria is a common cut flower with a long vase life.  The flowers can last for 3 weeks with adequate care in vase.  It is also a very good garden plant.  Alstromeria comes with so many colors, flower patterns and heights.  The colors include yellow, orange, salmon, pink, red, mauve, lavender, purple, cream, white, bi-colors and tri-colors.   The flowers have six petals and typically the 3 center petal have speckles, short stripes and blotches of other color.  There are also varieties without the speckles and blotches. The height ranges from ground hugging to 3 feet tall.  With so many varieties, you are sure to find at least one variety you like.  A pale yellow seedless variety about 3-feet tall  A red seedless variety about 3-feet tall  A seedless pinkish-red variety about 3-feet tall  A ground-hugging yellow variety  A short (1 foot) purple variety that produces numerous s...

Passion Fruit (Passiflora edulis) As the weather gets warmer, the purple fragrant flowers start to appear on the vine.  The unusual flowers with purple-white delicate filaments are very pretty and distinct.  In a few days the flowers drop to the ground and egg-shaped small green fruits get bigger every day.  Pretty soon, the fruit will turn purple and ready for consumption.  I wait until the fruit drop to the ground before collect the fruits. The passion fruit flower Young passion fruit Ripe passion fruit I usually cut the fruit in 2 halves and scoop out the fragrant, acidic-sweet orange pulp and eat it directly, spitting out the black seeds.  Some people may prefer to add a pinch of sugar to lessen the acidity.  Another option is to combine the content of 30 to 40 fruit, pour the combined pulp into a blender and blend it at low speed to separate the edible pulp from the seeds, filter the mixture with a wire mesh and collect the pass...

Plumeria A smell of plumeria's warm fragrance and I am back to Hawaii.  The beautiful plumeria lei and the trees full of yellow, pink and white flowers with fragrance hanging in the warm, moist air forever linked the plumeria with tropical Hawaii.  I liked the plumeria so much that I bought a small branch of plumeria in a plastic bag in the Honolulu airport.  The branch rooted in a pot and happily sent a few leaves and next year yellowish-white flowers appeared.  The plant was transplanted into my yard and it is 8-feet tall.  It blooms profusely every year and the sweet smell fills the garden.  I also bought a "Rainbow" variety with hues of pink, yellow and white on the same flower in a San Diego Plumeria Society exhibition at the Balboa Park.  It grows side by side with the yellow-white plumeria.  The"Rainbow" flowers are also fragrant, but not as strong as the other tree. The thick-petaled flowers  arrange themselves in a pinwheel fashion...

Wax jambu revisited I have written on Wax jambu in 2006 (see previous blog) .  However, ten years have passed and I feel there is a need for an update as I have learned a lot more about the tree. First at all, flowering of the Wax Jambu is totally unpredictable.  It flower sas early  in May in some years and as late in September in some years.  Last year, it actually bloomed twice (once in early May and again in late August) and produced two flushes of fruit.  I though the second crop must have less fruit or small size of the fruit.  It turned out that  the second crop is just as good as the first crop for both the number  and size of the fruit (see graph 1).  The only problem for the second crop is that some of fruit matured during a cold snap and the fruit tended to crack which attracted ants and fungus. Graph 1.Wax Jambu trees with lots of fruit. Secondly, Wax jambu is one of the most productive fruit trees.  It does no...

Clivia miniate Clivia originates from South Africa and like many Soutth African plants adapts quite happily in Southern California.  They are evergreen plants with strap-like leaves.  They like shade and are quite drought tolerant.  The plants in my garden have grown for more more than 10 years.  They form plantlets around the base which can be divided in a year or two and will bloom in 1 or 2 years.  Left on its own, a large clump will appear.  In these years, I have not observed any pests or disease.  They are not frost tolerant, but can be easily grown indoors and will flower with bright light. Clivia flowers in late March or early April with multiple clusters of orange, red or yellow flowers which are very attractive in the shade.  There are not many plants flowering as brightly in the shade.  After the flowers, green berries are produced and in about a year turn red (from orange-flower plants) and yellow (from yellow-flower plan...

March 11, 2017 Fruit from Loquat trees ( Eriobotrya japonica) are  starting to change color from green to yellow and orange now indicating the immediate ripening of the fruit..  I picked a few that look ripe (based deep orange color).  Most are still acidic and not sweet yet.  I guess I am too anxious and should wait a few more days.  But loquat is one of my favorite fruit and it is hard to wait for the chance to savor the delicious flavor.  Every year, I anxiously wait for the loquat season and gorge on the precious fruit. Loquats are evergreen tree that generally flower in December here in San Diego and the  fruit ripens in March/April.  They are quite productive with hundreds fruit in clusters of 4-20 fruit.  The fruit is very sweet when ripe with a little bit acidic taste and a distinctive loquat flavor.  I usually cut the fruit in 2 halves, peel the skin off, get rid of the large hard seeds (1 to 3 in the center) and enjoy the s...

July 10. 2012 morning fog followed by sunlight Michelia alba, Yulan Michelia alba is one of most fragrant flowers.  The flower is ivory in color.  My M. alba tree is finally growing this year after in the ground for 5 years.  It has put forth lots of new branches and leaves. It has started flowering in early June and we are picking around 10 flowers each day in July.  I bunched 4-6 flowers in a small cup with a few drops of water and they perfume the whole room, especially in late afternoon when it is warm.  The flowers usually last 2 to 3 days in the cup. According to Wikipedia, M alba is a hybrid not found in the wild and cultivated for ornamental use. It is a hybrid of Magnolia champaca and Magnolia montana .  It is a subtropical plant and does not like cold weather at all.  It is really popular in Southeastern China and Taiwan when they grow well.  It was a common sight to see girls selling M. alba flowers as a pendant of 3 to 5...